The nine women in standard prison issue made an unlikely cast. They performed in an even more unlikely venue. After months of creative writing, improvisation and rehearsals, these women incarcerated at the Dwight Correctional Center in central Illinois performed their original play entitled “Phenomenal Women: Our Past Does Not Reflect Our Future.”

“I need you, you need me. We’re all a part of God’s body. Stand with me…I need you to survive,” sings Alma, a 37-year old woman, to the audience of about 200 fellow inmates. It’s a rare expression of vulnerability, a rare moment of accomplishment in a life filled with disappointment.

“To see other people being able to respond to me as a human being, to be able to have the opportunity to do something like this—it’s an amazing thing,” Alma later tells Lisa Wagner-Carollo, the founder and executive director of Still Point Theatre Collective, a ministry of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Villa Park, Illinois. Lisa led these women in a prison theater workshop all summer, culminating in the performance.

While the inmates turned actresses are enthusiastic about their show, Lisa is even more excited about the changes exhibited in the women during the creative process. The women met weekly for several hours a session, exploring common themes of life, such as faith, adversity, sorrow, emptiness and depression. They participated in games, improvisational theater, and reflective writings, learning to trust and support each other along the way.

“Being able to share your stories and have people honor them and listen to them is very healing. Being able to see yourself differently and move forward with this new knowledge of yourself is very healing. When they share similar experiences with each other and realize they’re not alone, it is very healing,” Lisa explains.

Healing is something many of these women desperately want and need, according to Lisa. She initiated the first prison workshop in 1998 at the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center in hopes of being an agent in the healing process. The workshops, deemed the Persephone Project after the Greek goddess who is imprisoned in the underworld, were part of Lisa’s own journey of personal healing after a particularly difficult year.

Lisa says the response to that first workshop was overwhelmingly positive. Five years later, the Still Point Theatre leadership team felt called to expand their outreach to more women. Wheat Ridge Ministries provided a seed grant to start similar workshops at three additional facilities, including Dwight Correctional Center, Lake County Jail in Waukegan, Illinois, and a Salvation Army halfway house. In 2007, Still Point launched yet another outgrowth—a new touring theatre group comprised of formerly incarcerated women, called Sisters Rising.

“(The grant support) has given us a lot more stability as an organization, a lot more joy. The peak experiences are too many to count. It’s beautiful to see how the women grow and how much they value the program,” says Lisa.

Watching the process unfold is humbling to Lisa. She remembers one woman who approached her after a final performance. “She said, ‘Thank you for giving me hope.’ Later she explained that she felt like a failure her entire life and never accomplished anything. But, then she said, ‘I came to the workshop, I wrote a poem and performed it. I didn’t fail. It helped me see that maybe I can accomplish something.’”

A former inmate, Bobbi, remembers the impact the Persephone Project workshops had on her during the 16 months she spent at the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center. “I cannot begin to tell you how important these sessions were to me and the rest of the group. It was the one time we were able to interact together in a constructive, non-competitive way. I saw my fellow inmates in an entirely new light as creative, intelligent women,” she says.

Bobbi adds that due of her time spent with Lisa and other Persephone Project volunteers, “I came out of (prison) a better person than when I went in.” She says the caring people and the creative process were the impetus for honest self-reflection. “It’s only when someone decent like Lisa comes in and you hold her up as an example, that you say, look what a sneaky, despicable thing I did. I am really ashamed.”

Thank you for supporting Wheat Ridge Ministries and the Persephone Project as they bring hope and healing to oft-forgotten women inside our prison walls. You’ve touched the lives and hearts of Alma, Bobbi and hundreds others through your prayers and financial support.

Written by Jennifer Halupnik
Photos by Warren Skalski